4.
Prelude
The chords sounded smooth and nondissonant but
strange and somewhat eerie. The eﬀect was so diﬀerent
from the tempered scale that there was no tendency to
judge in-tuneness or out-of-tuneness. It seemed like a
peek into a new and unfamiliar musical world, in which
none of the old rules applied, and the new ones, if any,
were undiscovered. F. H. Slaymaker [B: 176]
To seek out new tonalities, new timbres...
To boldly listen to what no one has heard before.
Several years ago I purchased a musical synthesizer with an intriguing feature—
each note of the keyboard could be assigned to any desired pitch. This freedom
to arbitrarily specify the tuning removed a constraint from my music that I
had never noticed or questioned—playing in 12-tone equal temperament.1
Suddenly, new musical worlds opened, and I eagerly explored some of the
possibilities: unequal divisions of the octave, n equal divisions, and even some
tunings not based on the octave at all.
Curiously, it was much easier to play in some tunings than in others. For
instance, 19-tone equal temperament (19-tet) with its 19 equal divisions of the
octave is easy. Almost any kind of sampled or synthesized instrument plays
well: piano sounds, horn samples, and synthesized ﬂutes all mesh and ﬂow. 16tet is harder, but still feasible. I had to audition hundreds of sounds, but ﬁnally
found a few good sounds for my 16-tet chords. In 10-tet, though, none of the
tones in the synthesizers seemed right on sustained harmonic passages. It was
hard to ﬁnd pairs of notes that sounded reasonable together, and triads were
nearly impossible. Everything appeared somewhat out-of-tune, even though
the tuning was precisely ten tones per octave. Somehow the timbre, or tone
quality of the sounds, seemed to be interfering.
The more I experimented with alternative tunings, the more it appeared
that certain kinds of scales sound good with some timbres and not with others.
Certain kinds of timbres sound good in some scales and not in others. This
raised a host of questions: What is the relationship between the timbre of a
1
This is the way modern pianos are tuned. The seven white keys form the major
scale, and the ﬁve black keys ﬁll in the missing tones so that the perceived distance
between adjacent notes is (roughly) equal.

5.
VI
Prelude
sound and the intervals, scale, or tuning in which the sound appears “in tune?”
Can this relationship be expressed in precise terms? Is there an underlying
pattern?
This book answers these questions by drawing on recent results in psychoacoustics, which allow the relationship between timbre and tuning to be
explored in a clear and unambiguous way. Think of these answers as a model of
musical perception that makes predictions about what you hear: about what
kinds of timbres are appropriate in a given musical context, and what kind of
musical context is suitable for a given timbre.
Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale begins by explaining the relevant terms
from the psychoacoustic literature. For instance, the perception of “timbre” is
closely related to (but also distinct from) the physical notion of the spectrum
of a sound. Similarly, the perception of “in-tuneness” parallels the measurable
idea of sensory consonance. The key idea is that consonance and dissonance
are not inherent qualities of intervals, but they are dependent on the spectrum,
timbre, or tonal quality of the sound. To demonstrate this, the ﬁrst sound
example on the accompanying CD plays a short phrase where the octave
has been made dissonant by devious choice of timbre, even though other,
nonoctave intervals remain consonant. In fact, almost any interval can be
made dissonant or consonant by proper sculpting of the timbre.
Dissonance curves provide a straightforward way to predict the most consonant intervals for a given sound, and the set of most-consonant intervals
deﬁnes a scale related to the speciﬁed spectrum. These allow musicians and
composers to design sounds according to the needs of their music, rather than
having to create music around the sounds of a few common instruments. The
spectrum/scale relationship provides a map for the exploration of inharmonic
musical worlds.
To the extent that the spectrum/scale connection is based on properties of
the human auditory system, it is relevant to other musical cultures. Two important independent musical traditions are the gamelan ensembles of Indonesia (known for their metallophones and unusual ﬁve and seven-note scales) and
the percussion orchestras of classical Thai music (known for their xylophonelike idiophones and seven-tone equal-tempered scale). In the same way that
instrumental sounds with harmonic partials (for instance, those caused by vibrating strings and air columns) are closely related to the scales of the West,
so the scales of the gamelans are related to the spectrum, or tonal quality,
of the instruments used in the gamelan. Similarly, the unusual scales of Thai
classical music are related to the spectrum of the xylophone-like renat.
But there’s more. The ability to measure sensory consonance in a reliable
and perceptually relevant manner has several implications for the design of
audio signal processing devices and for musical theory and analysis. Perhaps
the most exciting of these is a new method of adaptive tuning that can automatically adjust the tuning of a piece based on the timbral character of the
music so as to minimize dissonance. Of course, one might cunningly seek to

6.
Prelude
VII
maximize dissonance; the point is that the composer or performer can now
directly control this perceptually relevant parameter.
The ﬁrst several chapters present the key ideas in a nonmathematical way.
The later chapters deal with the nitty-gritty issues of sound generation and
manipulation, and the text becomes denser. For readers without the background to read these sections, I would counsel the pragmatic approach of
skipping the details and focusing on the text and illustrations.
Fortunately, given current synthesizer technology, it is not necessary to
rely only on exposition and mathematical analysis. You can actually listen to
the sounds and the tunings, and verify for yourself that the predictions of the
model correspond to what you hear. This is the purpose of the accompanying
CD. Some tracks are designed to fulﬁll the predictions of the model, and some
are designed to violate them; it is not hard to tell the diﬀerence. The eﬀects
are not subtle.
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
August 2004
William A. Sethares

7.
Acknowledgments
This book owes a lot to many people.
The author would like to thank Tom Staley for extensive discussions about
tuning. Tom also helped write and perform Glass Lake. Brian McLaren was
amazing. He continued to feed me references, photocopies, and cartoons long
after I thought I was satiated. Fortunately, he knew better. The names Paul
Erlich, wallyesterpaulrus, paul-stretch-music, Jon Szanto, and Gary Morrison have been appearing daily in my e-mail inbox for so long that I keep
thinking I know who they are. Someday, the galactic oversight of our never
having met will be remedied. This book would be very diﬀerent without Larry
Polansky, who recorded the ﬁrst gamelan “data” that encouraged me to go
to Indonesia and gather data at its source. When Basuki Rachmanto and
Gunawen Widiyanto became interested in the gamelan recording project, it
became feasible. Thanks to both for work that was clearly above and beyond my hopes, and to the generous gamelan masters, tuners, and performers
throughout Eastern Java who allowed me to interview and record. Ian Dobson
has always been encouraging. He motivated and inspired me at a very crucial
moment, exactly when it was most needed. Since he probably doesn’t realize
this, please don’t tell him – he’s uppity enough as it is. John Sankey and I
co-authored the technical paper that makes up a large part of the chapter on
musicological analysis without ever having met face to face. Thanks, bf250.
David Reiley and Mary Lucking were the best guinea pigs a scientist could
hope for: squeak, squeak. Steve Curtin was helpful despite personal turmoil,
and Fred Spaeth was patently helpful. The hard work of Jean-Marc Fra¨ e
ıss´
appears clearly on the CD interface. Thanks also to my editors Nicholas Pinﬁeld, Christopher Greenwell, and Michael Jones for saying “yes” to a book
that otherwise might have fallen into the cracks between disciplines, and to
Deirdre Bowden and Alison Jackson for putting up with mutant eps ﬁles and
an unexpected appendectomy. Anthony Doyle and Michael Koy were instrumental in the preparation of this second edition. Several of the key ideas in
this book ﬁrst appeared in academic papers in the Journal of the Acoustical
Society of America, and Bill Strong did far more than coordinate the review

8.
X
Acknowledgments
process. Bill and his corps of anonymous reviewers were enlightening, thought
provoking, and frustrating, sometimes all at once. Marc Leman’s insights into
psychoacoustics and Gerard Pape’s thoughts on composition helped me reﬁne many of the ideas. Thanks to everyone on the “Alternate Tuning Mailing
List” and the “MakeMicroMusic list” at [W: 1] and [W: 18] who helped keep
me from feeling isolated and provided me with challenge and controversy at
every step.
The very greatest thanks go to Ann Bell and the Bunnisattva.

15.
Variables, Abbreviations, Deﬁnitions
ai
attack
[B:]
cent
Amplitudes of sine waves or partials.
The beginning portion of a signal.
Reference to the bibliography, see p. 381.
An octave is divided into 1200 equal sounding parts called
cents. See Appendix B.
-cet
Abbreviation for cent-equal-temperament. In n-cet, there are
n cents between each scale step; thus, 12-tet is the same as
100-cet.
CDC
Consonance-Dissonance Concept, see [B: 192].
d(fi , fj , ai , aj ) Dissonance between the partials at frequencies fi and fj with
corresponding amplitudes ai and aj .
[D:]
Reference to the discography, see p. 395.
DFT
Discrete Fourier Transform. The DFT of a waveform (sound)
shows how the sound can be decomposed into and rebuilt from
sine wave partials.
DF
Intrinsic dissonance of the spectrum F .
Dissonance of the spectrum F at the interval c.
DF (c)
diatonic
A seven-note scale containing ﬁve whole steps and two half
steps such as the common major and minor scales.
envelope
Evolution of the amplitude of a sound over time.
F
Name of a spectrum with partials at frequencies f1 , f2 , ..., fn
and amplitudes a1 , a2 , ..., an .
fi
Frequencies of partials.
ﬁfth
A 700-cent interval in 12-tet, or a 3:2 ratio in JI.
FFT
Fast Fourier Transform, a clever implementation of the DFT.
FM
Frequency Modulation, when the frequency of a sine wave is
changed, often sinusoidally.
formant
Resonances that may be thought of as ﬁxed ﬁlters through
which a variable excitation is passed.
fourth
A 500-cent interval in 12-tet, or a 4:3 ratio in JI.

16.
XVIII Variables, Abbreviations, Deﬁnitions
GA
harmonic
Hz
IAC
inharmonic
JI
JND
K
i
MIDI
octave
partial
periodic
RIW
[S:]
semitone
signal
sine wave
SMF
spectral mapping
SPSA
steady state
-tet
transient
[V:]
[W:]
waveform
whole tone
xenharmonic
xentonal
⊕
Genetic Algorithm, an optimization technique.
Harmonic sounds have a fundamental frequency f and partials
at integer multiples of f .
Hertz is a measure of frequency in cycles per second.
Interapplication ports that allow audio and MIDI data to be
exchanged between applications.
The partials of an inharmonic sound are not at integer multiples of a single fundamental frequency.
Just Intonation, the theory of musical intervals and scales
based on small integer ratios.
Just Noticeable Diﬀerence, smallest change that a listener can
detect.
K means 210 = 1024. For example, a 16K FFT contains 16 ×
1024 = 16386 samples.
Loudness of the ith partial of a sound.
Musical Interface for Digital Instruments, a communications
protocol for electronic musical devices.
Musical interval deﬁned by the ratio 2:1.
The partials (overtones) of a sound are the prominent sine wave
components in the DFT representation.
A function, signal, or waveform w(x) is periodic with period p
if w(x + p) = w(x) for all x.
Resampling with Identity Window, a technique for spectral
mapping.
Reference to the sound examples, see p. 399.
In 12-tet, an interval of 100 cents.
When a sound is converted into digital form in a computer, it
is called a signal.
The “simplest” waveform is completely characterized by frequency, amplitude, and phase.
Standard MIDI File, a way of storing and exchanging MIDI
data between computer platforms.
Technique for manipulating the partials of a sound.
Simultaneous Perturbation Stochastic Approximation, a technique of numerical optimization
The part of a sound that can be closely approximated by a
periodic waveform.
Abbreviation for tone-equal-tempered. 12-tet is the standard
Western keyboard tuning.
That portion of a sound that cannot be closely approximated
by a periodic signal.
Reference to the video examples, see p. 411.
Web references, see p. 413
Synonym for signal.
In 12-tet, an interval of 200 cents.
Strange musical “harmonies” not possible in 12-tet.
Music with a surface appearance of tonality, but unlike anything possible in 12-tet.
Pronounced oh-plus, this symbol indicates the “sum” of two
intervals in the symbolic method of constructing spectra.

17.
1
The Octave Is Dead . . . Long Live the Octave
1.1 A Challenge
The octave is the most consonant interval after the unison. A low C on the
piano sounds “the same” as a high C. Scales “repeat” at octave intervals.
These commonsense notions are found wherever music is discussed:
The most basic musical interval is the octave, which occurs when
the frequency of any tone is doubled or halved. Two tones an octave
apart create a feeling of identity, or the duplication of a single pitch
in a higher or lower register.1
Harry Olson2 uses “pleasant” rather than “consonant”:
An interval between two sounds is their spacing in pitch or frequency...
It has been found that the octave produces a pleasant sensation... It is
an established fact that the most pleasing combination of two tones is
one in which the frequency ratio is expressible by two integers neither
of which is large.
W. A. Mathieu3 discusses the octave far more poetically:
The two sounds are the same and diﬀerent. Same name, same “note”
(whatever that is), but higher pitch. When a man sings nursery rhymes
with a child, he is singing precisely the same song, but lower than the
child. They are singing together, but singing apart. There is something
easy in the harmony of two tones an octave apart - played either
separately or together - but an octave transcends easy. There is a way
in which the tones are identical.
1
2
3
From [B: 66].
[B: 123].
[B: 104].

18.
2
1 The Octave Is Dead . . . Long Live the Octave
Arthur Benade4 observes that the similarity between notes an octave apart
has been enshrined in many of the world’s languages:
Musicians of all periods and all places have tended to agree that when
they hear a tone having a repetition frequency double that of another
one, the two are very nearly interchangeable. This similarity of a tone
with its octave is so striking that in most languages both tones are
given the same name.
Anthony Storr5 is even more emphatic:
The octave is an acoustic fact, expressible mathematically, which is
not created by man. The composition of music requires that the octave
be taken as the most basic relationship.
Given all this, the reader may be surprised (and perhaps a bit incredulous) to
hear a tone that is distinctly dissonant when played in the interval of an octave,
yet sounds nicely consonant when played at some other, nonoctave interval.
This is exactly the demonstration provided in the ﬁrst sound example6 [S: 1]
and repeated in the ﬁrst video example7 [V: 1]. The demonstration consists
of only a handful of notes, as shown in Fig. 1.1.
#_ #_
_ _
H ˙
|
H ˙
|
˙ h
|
n ˙ l[
|
l& h
f
2f
f & 2f
f
2.1f
f & 2.1f
Fig. 1.1. In sound example [S: 1]
and video example [V: 1], the timbre of the sound is constructed so
that the octave between f and 2f
is dissonant while the nonoctave f
to 2.1f is consonant. Go listen to
this example now.
A note is played (with a fundamental frequency f = 450 Hz8 ) followed by its
octave (with fundamental at 2f = 900 Hz). Individually, they sound normal
enough, although perhaps somewhat “electronic” or bell-like in nature. But
when played simultaneously, they clash in a startling dissonance. In the second
phrase, the same note is played, followed by a note with fundamental at 2.1f =
945 Hz (which falls just below the highly dissonant interval usually called the
augmented octave or minor 9th). Amazingly, this second, nonoctave (and even
microtonal) interval appears smooth and restful, even consonant; it has many
4
5
6
7
8
[B: 12].
[B: 184].
Beginning on p. 399 is a listing of all sound examples (references to sound examples are prefaced with [S:]) along with instructions for accessing them with a
computer.
Beginning on p. 411 is a listing of all video examples (references to video examples are prefaced with [V:]) along with instructions for accessing them with a
computer.
Hz stands for Hertz, the unit of frequency. One Hertz equals one cycle per second.

19.
1.1 A Challenge
3
of the characteristics usually associated with the octave. Such an interval is
called a pseudo-octave.
Precise details of the construction of the sound used in this example are
given later. For now, it is enough to recognize that the tonal makeup of the
sound was carefully chosen in conjunction with the intervals used. Thus, the
“trick” is to choose the spectrum or timbre of the sound (the tone quality) to
match the tuning (the intervals desired).
As will become apparent, there is a relationship between the kinds of
sounds made by Western instruments (i.e., harmonic9 sounds) and the kinds
of intervals (and hence scales) used in conventional Western tonal music. In
particular, the 2:1 octave is important precisely because the ﬁrst two partials
of a harmonic sound have 2:1 ratios. Other kinds of sounds are most naturally
played using other intervals, for example, the 2.1 pseudo-octave. Stranger
still, there are inharmonic sounds that suggest no natural or obvious interval
of repetition. Octave-based music is only one of a multitude of possible musics.
As future chapters show, it is possible to make almost any interval reasonably
consonant, or to make it wildly dissonant, by properly sculpting the spectrum
of the sound.
Sound examples [S: 2] to [S: 5] are basically an extended version of this
example, where you can better hear the clash of the dissonances and the
odd timbral character associated with the inharmonic stretched sounds. The
“same” simple piece is played four ways:
[S:
[S:
[S:
[S:
2]
3]
4]
5]
Harmonic sounds in 12-tet
Harmonic sounds in the 2.1 stretched scale
2.1 stretched timbres in the 2.1 stretched scale
2.1 stretched timbres in 12-tet
where 12-tet is an abbreviation for the familiar 12-tone per octave equal tempered scale, and where the stretched scale, based on the 2.1 pseudo-octave,
is designed specially for use with the stretched timbres. When the timbres
and the scales are matched (as in [S: 2] and [S: 4]), there is contrast between
consonance and dissonance as the chords change, and the piece has a sensible
musical ﬂow (although the timbral qualities in [S: 4] are decidedly unusual).
When the timbres and scales do not match (as in [S: 3] and [S: 5]), the piece is
uniformly dissonant. The diﬀerence between these two situations is not subtle,
and it calls into question the meaning of basic terms like timbre, consonance,
and dissonance. It calls into question the octave as the most consonant interval, and the kinds of harmony and musical theories based on that view.
In order to make sense of these examples, Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale
uses the notions of sensory consonance and sensory dissonance. These terms
are carefully deﬁned in Chap. 3 and are contrasted with other notions of
consonance and dissonance in Chap. 5.
9
Here harmonic is used in the technical sense of a sound with overtones composed
exclusively of integer multiples of some audible fundamental.

20.
4
1 The Octave Is Dead . . . Long Live the Octave
1.2 A Dissonance Meter
Such shaping of spectra and scales requires that there be a convenient way
to measure the dissonance of a given sound or interval. One of the key ideas
underlying the sonic manipulations in Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale is the
construction of a “dissonance meter.” Don’t worry—no soldering is required.
The dissonance meter is a computer program that inputs a sound in digital
form and outputs a number proportional to the (sensory) dissonance or consonance of the sound. For longer musical passages with many notes, the meter
can be used to measure the dissonance within each speciﬁed time interval,
for instance, within each measure or each beat. As the challenging the octave
example shows, the dissonance meter must be sensitive to both the tuning (or
pitch) of the sounds and to the spectrum (or timbre) of the tones.
Although such a device may seem frivolous at ﬁrst glance, it has many
real uses:
As an audio signal processing device: The dissonance meter is at the heart of a
device that can automatically reduce the dissonance of a sound, while leaving
its character more or less unchanged. This can also be reversed to create a
sound that is more dissonant than the input. Combined, this provides a way
to directly control the perceived dissonance of a sound.
Adaptive tuning of musical synthesizers: While monitoring the dissonance of
the notes commanded by a performer, the meter can be used to adjust the
tuning of the notes (microtonally) to minimize the dissonance of the passage.
This is a concrete way of designing an adaptive or dynamic tuning.
Exploration of inharmonic sounds: The dissonance meter shows which intervals are most consonant (and which most dissonant) as a function of the
spectrum of the instrument. As the challenging the octave example shows,
unusual sounds can be proﬁtably played in unusual intervals. The dissonance
meter can concretely specify related intervals and spectra to ﬁnd tunings most
appropriate for a given timbre. This is a kind of map for the exploration of
inharmonic musical spaces.
Exploration of “arbitrary” musical scales: Each timbre or spectrum has a set
of intervals in which it sounds most consonant. Similarly, each set of intervals
(each musical scale) has timbres with spectra that sound most consonant in
that scale. The dissonance meter can help ﬁnd timbres most appropriate for
a given tuning.
Analysis of tonal music and performance: In tonal systems with harmonic
instruments, the consonance and dissonance of a musical passage can often
be read from the score because intervals within a given historical period have
a known and relatively ﬁxed degree of consonance and/or dissonance. But

21.
1.3 New Perspectives
5
performances may vary. A dissonance meter can be used to measure the actual
dissonance of diﬀerent performances of the same piece.
Analysis of nontonal and nonwestern music and performance: Sounds played
in intervals radically diﬀerent from those found in 12-tet have no standard or
accepted dissonance value in standard music theory. As the dissonance meter
can be applied to any sound at any interval, it can be used to help make
musical sense of passages to which standard theories are inapplicable. For
instance, it can be used to investigate nonwestern music such as the gamelan,
and modern atonal music.
Historical musicology: Many historical composers wrote in musical scales (such
as meantone, Pythagorean, Just, etc.) that are diﬀerent from 12-tet, but they
did not document their usage. By analyzing the choice of intervals, the dissonance meter can make an educated guess at likely scales using only the extant
music. Chapter 11, on “Musicological Analysis,” investigates possible scales
used by Domenico Scarlatti.
As an intonation monitor: Two notes in unison are very consonant. When
slightly out of tune, dissonances occur. The dissonance meter can be used to
monitor the intonation of a singer or instrumentalist, and it may be useful as
a training device.
The ability to measure dissonance is a crucial component in several kinds of
audio devices and in certain methods of musical analysis. The idea that dissonance is a function of the timbre of the sound as well as the musical intervals
also has important implications for the understanding of nonwestern musics,
modern atonal and experimental compositions, and the design of electronic
musical instruments.
1.3 New Perspectives
The dissonance curve plots how much sensory dissonance occurs at each interval, given the spectrum (or timbre) of a sound. Many common Western
orchestral (and popular) instruments are primarily harmonic, that is, they
have a spectrum that consists of a fundamental frequency along with partials
(or overtones) at integer multiples of the fundamental. This spectrum can be
used to draw a dissonance curve, and the minima of this curve occur at or near
many of the steps of the Western scales. This suggests a relationship between
the spectrum of the instruments and the scales in which they are played.
Nonwestern Musics
Many diﬀerent scale systems have been and still are used throughout the
world. In Indonesia, for instance, gamelans are tuned to ﬁve and seven-note

22.
6
1 The Octave Is Dead . . . Long Live the Octave
scales that are very diﬀerent from 12-tet. The timbral quality of the (primarily metallophone) instruments is also very diﬀerent from the harmonic instruments of the West. The dissonance curve for these metallophones have minima that occur at or near the scale steps used by the gamelans.10 Similarly, in
Thailand, there is a classical music tradition that uses wooden xylophone-like
instruments called renats that play in (approximately) 7-tet. The dissonance
curve for renat-like timbres have minima that occur near many of the steps
of the traditional 7-tet Thai scale, as shown in Chap. 15. Thus, the musical
scales of these nonwestern traditions are related to the inharmonic spectra of
the instruments, and the idea of related spectra and scales is applicable cross
culturally.
New Scales
Even in the West, the present 12-tet system is a fairly recent innovation,
and many diﬀerent scales have been used throughout history. Some systems,
such as those used in the Indonesian gamelan, do not even repeat at octave
intervals. Can any possible set of intervals or frequencies form a viable musical
scale, assuming that the listener is willing to acclimate to the scale?
Some composers have viewed this as a musical challenge. Easley Blackwood’s Microtonal Etudes might jokingly be called the “Ill-Tempered Synthesizer” because it explores all equal temperaments between 13 and 24. Thus,
instead of 12 equal divisions of the octave, these pieces divide the octave
into 13, 14, 15, and more equal parts. Ivor Darreg composed in many equal
temperaments,11 exclaiming
the striking and characteristic moods of many tuning-systems will
become the most powerful and compelling reason for exploring beyond
12-tone equal temperament. It is necessary to have more than one
non-twelve-tone system before these moods can be heard and their
signiﬁcance appreciated.12
Others have explored nonequal divisions of the octave13 and even various
subdivisions of nonoctaves.14 It is clearly possible to make music in a large
variety of tunings. Such music is called xenharmonic,15 strange “harmonies”
unlike anything possible in 12-tet.
The intervals that are most consonant for harmonic sounds are made from
small integer ratios such as the octave (2:1), the ﬁfth (3:2), and the fourth
(4:3). These simple integer ratio intervals are called just intervals, and they
collectively form scales known as just intonation scales. Many of the just
10
11
12
13
14
15
See Chap. 10 “The Gamelan” for details and caveats.
[D: 10].
From [B: 36], No. 5.
For instance, Vallotti, Kirchenberg, and Partch.
For instance, Carlos [B: 23], Mathews and Pierce [B: 102], and McLaren [B: 108].
Coined by Darreg [B: 36], from the Greek xenos for strange or foreign.

23.
1.3 New Perspectives
7
intervals occur close to (but not exactly at16 ) steps of the 12-tet scale, which
can be viewed as an acceptable approximation to these just intervals. Steps
of the 19-tet scale also approximate many of the just intervals, but the 10-tet
scale steps do not. This suggests why, for instance, it is easy to play in 19-tet
and hard to play in 10-tet using harmonic tones—there are many consonant
intervals in 19-tet but few in 10-tet.
New Sounds
The challenging the octave demonstration shows that certain unusual intervals
can be consonant when played with certain kinds of unusual sounds. Is it
possible to make any interval consonant by properly manipulating the sound
quality? For instance, is it possible to choose the spectral character so that
many of the 10-tet intervals became consonant? Would it then be “easy” to
play in 10-tet? The answer is “yes,” and part of this book is dedicated to
exploring ways of manipulating the spectrum in an appropriate manner.
Although Western music relies heavily on harmonic sounds, these are only
one of a multitude of kinds of sound. Modern synthesizers can easily generate inharmonic sounds and transport us into unexplored musical realms.
The spectrum/scale connection provides a guideline for exploration by specifying the intervals in which the sounds can be played most consonantly or by
specifying the sounds in which the intervals can be played most consonantly.
Thus, the methods allow the composer to systematically specify the amount
of consonance or dissonance. The composer has a new and powerful method
of control over the music.
Consider a ﬁxed scale in which all intervals are just. No such scale can
be modulated through all the keys. No such scale can play all the consonant chords even in a single key. (These are arithmetic impossibilities, and
a concrete example is provided on p. 159.) But using the ideas of sensory
consonance, it is possible to adapt the pitches of the notes dynamically. For
harmonic tones, this is equivalent to playing in simple integer (just) ratios, but
allows modulation to any key, thus bypassing this ancient problem. Although
previous theorists had proposed that such dynamic tunings might be possible,17 this is the ﬁrst concrete method that can be applied to any chord in any
musical setting. It is possible to have your just intonation and to modulate,
too! Moreover, the adaptive tuning method is not restricted to harmonic tones,
and so it provides a way to “automatically” play in the related scale (the scale
consisting of the most consonant intervals, given the spectral character of the
sound).
16
17
Table 6.1 on p. 101 shows how close these approximations are.
See Polansky [B: 142] and Waage [B: 202].

24.
8
1 The Octave Is Dead . . . Long Live the Octave
New “Music Theories”
When working in an unfamiliar system, the composer cannot rely on musical
intuition developed through years of practice. In 10-tet, for instance, there
are no intervals near the familiar ﬁfths or thirds, and it is not obvious what
intervals and chords make musical sense. The ideas of sensory consonance can
be used to ﬁnd the most consonant chords, as well as the most consonant
intervals (as always, sensory consonance is a function of the intervals and of
the spectrum/timbre of the sound), and so it can provide a kind of sensory
map for the exploration of new tunings and new timbres. Chapter 14 develops
a new music theory for 10-tet. The “neutral third” chord is introduced along
with the “circle of thirds” (which is somewhat analogous to the familiar circle
of ﬁfths in 12-tet). This can be viewed as a prototype of the kinds of theoretical
constructs that are possible using the sensory consonance approach, and pieces
are included on the CD to demonstrate that the predictions of the model are
valid in realistic musical situations.
Unlike most theories of music, this one does not seek (primarily) to explain a body of existing musical practice. Rather, like a good scientiﬁc theory,
it makes concrete predictions that can be readily veriﬁed or falsiﬁed. These
predictions involve how (inharmonic) sounds combine, how spectra and scales
interact, and how dissonance varies as a function of both interval and spectrum. The enclosed CD provides examples so that you can verify for yourself
that the predictions correspond to perceptual reality.
Tuning and spectrum theories are independent of musical style; they are
no more “for” classical music than they are “for” jazz or pop. It would be
naive to suggest that complex musical properties such as style can be measured in terms of a simple sensory criterion. Even in the realm of harmony
(and ignoring musically essential aspects such as melody and rhythm), sensory consonance is only part of the story. A harmonic progression that was
uniformly consonant would be tedious; harmonic interest arises from a complex interplay of restlessness and restfulness,18 of tension and resolution. It is
easy to increase the sensory dissonance, and hence the restlessness, by playing
more notes (try slamming your arm on the keyboard). But it is not always as
easy to increase the sensory consonance and hence the restfulness. By playing
sounds in their related scales, it is possible to obtain the greatest contrast
between consonance and dissonance for a given sound palette.
1.4 Overview
While introducing the appropriate psychoacoustic jargon, Chap. 2 (the “Science of Sound”) draws attention to the important distinction between what
18
Alternative deﬁnitions of dissonance and consonance are discussed at length in
Chap. 5.

25.
1.4 Overview
9
we perceive and what is really (measurably) there. Any kind of “perceptually
intelligent” musical device must exploit the measurable in order to extract
information from the environment, and it must then shape the sound based
on the perceptual requirements of the listener. Chapter 3 looks carefully at
the case of two simultaneously sounding sine waves, which is the simplest
situation in which sensory dissonances occur.
Chapter 4 reviews several of the common organizing principles behind the
creation of musical scales, and it builds a library of historical and modern
scales that will be used throughout the book as examples.
Chapter 5 gives an overview of the many diverse meanings that the words
“consonance” and “dissonance” have enjoyed throughout the centuries. The
relatively recent notion of sensory consonance is then adopted for use throughout the remainder of the book primarily because it can be readily measured
and quantiﬁed.
Chapter 6 introduces the idea of a dissonance curve that displays (for a
sound with a given spectrum) the sensory consonance and dissonance of all
intervals. This leads to the deﬁnition of a related spectrum and scale, a sound
for which the most consonant intervals occur at precisely the scale steps. Two
complementary questions are posed. Given a spectrum, what is the related
scale? Given a scale, what is a related spectrum? The second, more diﬃcult
question is addressed at length in Chap. 12, and Chap. 7 (“A Bell, A Rock,
A Crystal”) gives three detailed examples of how related spectra and scales
can be exploited in musical contexts. This is primarily interesting from a
compositional point of view.
Chapter 8 shows how the ideas of sensory consonance can be exploited to
create a method of adaptive tuning, and it provides several examples of “what
to expect” from such an algorithm. Chapter 9 highlights three compositions in
adaptive tuning and discusses compositional techniques and tradeoﬀs. Musical
compositions and examples are provided on the accompanying CD.
The remaining chapters can be read in any order. Chapter 10 shows how
the pelog and slendro scales of the Indonesian gamelan are correlated with the
spectra of the metallophones on which they are played. Similarly, Chap. 15
shows how the scales of Thai classical music are related to the spectra of the
Thai instruments.
Chapter 11 explores applications in musicology. The dissonance score can
be used to compare diﬀerent performances of the same piece, or to examine
the use of consonances and dissonances in unscored and nonwestern music.
An application to historical musicology shows how the tuning preferences of
Domenico Scarlatti can be investigated using only his extant scores.
Chapter 14 explores one possible alternative musical universe, that of 10tet. This should only be considered a preliminary foray into what promises to
be a huge undertaking—codifying and systematizing music theories for non12-tet. Although it is probably impossible to ﬁnd a “new” chord in 12-tet, it
is impossible to play in n-tet without creating new harmonies, new chordal
structures, and new kinds of musical passages.

26.
10
1 The Octave Is Dead . . . Long Live the Octave
Chapters 12 and 13 are the most technically involved. They show how to
specify spectra for a given tuning, and how to create rich and complex sounds
with the speciﬁed spectral content.
The ﬁnal chapter sums up the ideas in Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale
as exploiting a single perceptual measure (that of sensory consonance) and
applying it to musical theory, practice, and sound design. As we expand the
palette of timbres we play, we will naturally begin to play in new intervals
and new tunings.

27.
2
The Science of Sound
“Sound” as a physical phenomenon and “sound” as
a perceptual phenomena are not the same thing.
Deﬁnitions and results from acoustics are compared
and contrasted to the appropriate deﬁnitions and results
from perception research and psychology. Auditory
perceptions such as loudness, pitch, and timbre can
often be correlated with physically measurable properties
of the sound wave.
2.1 What Is Sound?
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is near, does it make any sound?
Understanding the diﬀerent ways that people talk about sound can help get
to the heart of this conundrum. One deﬁnition1 describes the wave nature of
sound:
Vibrations transmitted through an elastic material or a solid, liquid,
or gas, with frequencies in the approximate range of 20 to 20,000 hertz.
Thus, physicists and engineers use “sound” to mean a pressure wave propagating through the air, something that can be readily measured, digitized into
a computer, and analyzed. A second deﬁnition focuses on perceptual aspects:
The sensation stimulated in the organs of hearing by such vibrations
in the air or other medium.
Psychologists (and others) use “sound” to refer to a perception that occurs
inside the ear, something that is notoriously hard to quantify.
Does the tree falling alone in the wilderness make sound? Under the ﬁrst
deﬁnition, the answer is “yes” because it will inevitably cause vibrations in
the air. Using the second deﬁnition, however, the answer is “no” because
there are no organs of hearing present to be stimulated. Thus, the physicist
says yes, the psychologist says no, and the pundits proclaim a paradox. The
source of the confusion is that “sound” is used in two diﬀerent senses. Drawing
such distinctions is more than just a way to resolve ancient puzzles, it is also
a way to avoid similar confusions that can arise when discussing auditory
phenomena.
1
from the American Heritage Dictionary.

28.
12
2 The Science of Sound
air pressure
Physical attributes of a signal such as frequency and amplitude must be
kept distinct from perceptual correlates such as pitch and loudness.2 The physical attributes are measurable properties of the signal whereas the perceptual
correlates are inside the mind of the listener. To the physicist, sound is a pressure wave that propagates through an elastic medium (i.e., the air). Molecules
of air are alternately bunched together and then spread apart in a rapid oscillation that ultimately bumps up against the eardrum. When the eardrum
wiggles, signals are sent to the brain, causing “sound” in the psychologist’s
sense.
high
nominal
low
tuning fork
oscillates,
disturbing the
nearby air
air molecules close
together = region of
high pressure
air molecules far
apart = region of rapid oscillations in
low pressure
air pressure causes
eardrum to vibrate
Fig. 2.1. Sound as a pressure wave. The peaks represent times when air molecules
are clustered, causing higher pressure. The valleys represent times when the air
density (and hence the pressure) is lower than nominal. The wave pushes against
the eardrum in times of high pressure, and pulls (like a slight vacuum) during times
of low pressure, causing the drum to vibrate. These vibrations are perceived as
sound.
Sound waves can be pictured as graphs such as in Fig. 2.1, where highpressure regions are shown above the horizontal line, and low-pressure regions
are shown below. This particular waveshape, called a sine wave, can be characterized by three mathematical quantities: frequency, amplitude, and phase.
The frequency of the wave is the number of complete oscillations that occur
in one second. Thus, a sine wave with a frequency of 100 Hz (short for Hertz,
after the German physicist Heinrich Rudolph Hertz) oscillates 100 times each
second. In the corresponding sound wave, the air molecules bounce back and
forth 100 times each second.
2
The ear actually responds to sound pressure, which is usually measured in decibels.

29.
2.2 What Is a Spectrum?
13
The human auditory system (the ear, for short) perceives the frequency of a
sine wave as its pitch, with higher frequencies corresponding to higher pitches.
The amplitude of the wave is given by the diﬀerence between the highest and
lowest pressures attained. As the ear reacts to variations in pressure, waves
with higher amplitudes are generally perceived as louder, whereas waves with
lower amplitudes are heard as softer. The phase of the sine wave essentially
speciﬁes when the wave starts, with respect to some arbitrarily given starting
time. In most circumstances, the ear cannot determine the phase of a sine
wave just by listening.
Thus, a sine wave is characterized by three measurable quantities, two of
which are readily perceptible. This does not, however, answer the question of
what a sine wave sounds like. Indeed, no amount of talk will do. Sine waves
have been variously described as pure, tonal, clean, simple, clear, like a tuning
fork, like a theremin, electronic, and ﬂute-like. To refresh your memory, the
ﬁrst few seconds of sound example [S: 8] are purely sinusoidal.
2.2 What Is a Spectrum?
Individual sine waves have limited musical value. However, combinations of
sine waves can be used to describe, analyze, and synthesize almost any possible
sound. The physicist’s notion of the spectrum of a waveform correlates well
with the perceptual notion of the timbre of a sound.
2.2.1 Prisms, Fourier Transforms, and Ears
As sound (in the physical sense) is a wave, it has many properties that are
analogous to the wave properties of light. Think of a prism, which bends
each color through a diﬀerent angle and so decomposes sunlight into a family
of colored beams. Each beam contains a “pure color,” a wave of a single
frequency, amplitude, and phase.3 Similarly, complex sound waves can be
decomposed into a family of simple sine waves, each of which is characterized
by its frequency, amplitude, and phase. These are called the partials, or the
overtones of the sound, and the collection of all the partials is called the
spectrum. Figure 2.2 depicts the Fourier transform in its role as a “sound
prism.”
This prism eﬀect for sound waves is achieved by performing a spectral
analysis, which is most commonly implemented in a computer by running a
program called the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) or the more eﬃcient
Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Standard versions of the DFT and/or the FFT
are readily available in audio processing software and in numerical packages
(such as Matlab and Mathematica) that can manipulate sound data ﬁles.
3
For light, frequency corresponds to color, and amplitude to intensity. Like the
ear, the eye is predominantly blind to the phase.

30.
14
2 The Science of Sound
high frequencies
= blue light
middle frequencies
= yellow light
complex light wave
low frequencies
= red light
prism
high frequencies
= treble
Digitize
Waveform
in
Computer
complex sound wave
Fourier
Transform
middle frequencies
= midrange
low frequencies
= bass
Fig. 2.2. Just as a prism separates light into its simple constituent elements (the
colors of the rainbow), the Fourier Transform separates sound waves into simpler sine
waves in the low (bass), middle (midrange), and high (treble) frequencies. Similarly,
the auditory system transforms a pressure wave into a spatial array that corresponds
to the various frequencies contained in the wave, as shown in Fig. 2.4.
The spectrum gives important information about the makeup of a sound.
For example, Fig. 2.3 shows a small portion of each of three sine waves:
(a) With a frequency of 100 Hz and an amplitude of 1.2 (the solid
line)
(b) With a frequency of 200 Hz and an amplitude of 1.0 (plotted
with dashes)
(c) With a frequency of 200 Hz and an amplitude of 1.0, but
shifted in phase from (b) (plotted in bold dashes)
such as might be generated by a pair of tuning forks or an electronic tuner
playing the G below middle C and the G an octave below that.4 When (a)
and (b) are sounded together (mathematically, the amplitudes are added together point by point), the result is the (slightly more) complex wave shown
in part (d). Similarly, (a) and (c) added together give (e). When (d) is Fourier
transformed, the result is the graph (f) that shows frequency on the horizontal axis and the magnitude of the waves displayed on the vertical axis. Such
magnitude/frequency graphs are called the spectrum5 of the waveform, and
they show what the sound is made of. In this case, we know that the sound is
4
5
Actually, the G’s should have frequencies of 98 and 196, but 100 and 200 make
all of the numbers easier to follow.
This is more properly called the magnitude spectrum. The phase spectrum is ignored in this discussion because it does not correspond well to the human perceptual apparatus.

31.
2.2 What Is a Spectrum?
15
composed of two sine waves at frequencies 100 and 200, and indeed there are
two peaks in (f) corresponding to these frequencies. Moreover, we know that
the amplitude of the 100-Hz sinusoid is 20% larger than the amplitude of the
200-Hz sine, and this is reﬂected in the graph by the size of the peaks. Thus,
the spectrum (f) decomposes the waveform (d) into its constituent sine wave
components.
(a) frequency 100 Hz
and amplitude 1.2
frequency 200 Hz
(b) and amplitude 1.0
frequency 200 Hz
(c) and amplitude 1.0,
but displaced in
phase from (b)
(d) sum of (a) and (b)
1.2
-1.2
1
-1
1
-1
1
-1
1
(e) sum of (a) and (c)
-1
waveforms (d)
and (e) sound
(f) the same, and
their spectra
are identical
0.01
0.02
0.03
time (in seconds)
0.04
magnitude
0
0
100 200 300 400 500
frequency Hz
Fig. 2.3. Spectrum of a sound consisting of two sine waves.
This idea of breaking up a complex sound into its sinusoidal elements
is important because the ear functions as a kind of “biological” spectrum
analyzer. That is, when sound waves impinge on the ear, we hear a sound
(in the second, perceptual sense of the word) that is a direct result of the
spectrum, and it is only indirectly a result of the waveform. For example, the
waveform in part (d) looks very diﬀerent from the waveform in part (e), but
they sound essentially the same. Analogously, the spectrum of waveform (d)
and the spectrum of waveform (e) are identical (because they have been built
from sine waves with the same frequencies and amplitudes). Thus, the spectral
representation captures perceptual aspects of a sound that the waveform does

32.
16
2 The Science of Sound
not. Said another way, the spectrum (f) is more meaningful to the ear than
are the waveforms (d) and (e).
A nontrivial but interesting exercise in mathematics shows that any periodic signal can be broken apart into a sum of sine waves with frequencies that
are integer multiples of some fundamental frequency. The spectrum is thus
ideal for representing periodic waveforms. But no real sound is truly periodic,
if only because it must have a beginning and an end; at best it may closely
approximate a periodic signal for a long, but ﬁnite, time. Hence, the spectrum
can closely, but not exactly, represent a musical sound. Much of this chapter
is devoted to discovering how close such a representation can really be.
Figure 2.4 shows a drastically simpliﬁed view of the auditory system.
Sound or pressure waves, when in close proximity to the eardrum, cause it to
vibrate. These oscillations are translated to the oval window through a mechanical linkage consisting of three small bones. The oval window is mounted
at one end of the cochlea, which is a conical tube that is curled up like a
snail shell (although it is straightened out in the illustration). The cochlea
is ﬁlled with ﬂuid, and it is divided into two chambers lengthwise by a thin
layer of pliable tissue called the basilar membrane. The motion of the ﬂuid
rocks the membrane. The region nearest the oval window responds primarily
to high frequencies, and the far end responds mostly to low frequencies. Tiny
hair-shaped neurons sit on the basilar membrane, sending messages toward
the brain when they are jostled.
oval window
membrane near window is
narrow and stiff, responds
to high frequencies
membrane in middle
responds to midrange
complex
sound wave
mechanical linkage
of bones
membrane at end is
wide and flexible,
responds to low
frequencies
eardrum vibrates
basilar membrane
cochlea: a fluid
filled conical tube wiggles, triggering tiny
hair shaped neurons
Fig. 2.4. The auditory system as a biological spectrum analyzer that transforms a
pressure wave into a frequency selective spatial array.
Thus, the ear takes in a sound wave, like that in Fig. 2.3 (d) or (e), and
sends a coded representation to the brain that is similar to a spectral analysis,
as in (f). The conceptual similarities between the Fourier transform and the
auditory system show why the idea of the spectrum of a sound is so powerful;
the Fourier transform is a mathematical tool that is closely related to our
perceptual mechanism. This analogy between the perception of timbre and

33.
2.2 What Is a Spectrum?
17
the Fourier spectrum was ﬁrst posited by Georg Ohm in 1843 (see [B: 147]),
and it has driven much of the acoustics research of the past century and a
half.
2.2.2 Spectral Analysis: Examples
The example in the previous section was contrived because we constructed
the signal from two sine waves, only to “discover” that the Fourier transform
contained the frequencies of those same two sine waves. It is time to explore
more realistic sounds: the pluck of a guitar and the strike of a metal bar. In
both cases, it will be possible to give both a physical and an auditory meaning
to the spectrum.
Guitar Pluck: Theory
Guitar strings are ﬂexible and lightweight, and they are held ﬁrmly in place at
both ends, under considerable tension. When plucked, the string vibrates in a
far more complex and interesting way than the simple sine wave oscillations
of a tuning fork or an electronic tuner. Figure 2.5 shows the ﬁrst 3/4 second
of the open G string of my Martin acoustic guitar. Observe that the waveform
is initially very complex, bouncing up and down rapidly. As time passes, the
oscillations die away and the gyrations simplify. Although it may appear that
almost anything could be happening, the string can vibrate freely only at
certain frequencies because of its physical constraints.
For sustained oscillations, a complete half cycle of the wave must ﬁt exactly
inside the length of the string; otherwise, the string would have to move up
and down where it is rigidly attached to the bridge (or nut) of the guitar. This
is a tug of war the string inevitably loses, because the bridge and nut are far
more massive than the string. Thus, all oscillations except those at certain
privileged frequencies are rapidly attenuated.
Figure 2.6 shows the fundamental and the ﬁrst few modes of vibration for
a theoretically ideal string. If half a period corresponds to the fundamental
frequency f , then a whole period at frequency 2f also ﬁts exactly into the
length of the string. This more rapid mode of vibration is called the second
partial. Similarly, a period and a half at frequency 3f ﬁts exactly, and it is
called the third partial. Such a spectrum, in which all frequencies of vibration
are integer multiples of some fundamental f , is called harmonic, and the
frequencies of oscillation are called the natural modes of vibration or resonant
frequencies of the string. As every partial repeats exactly within the period of
the fundamental, harmonic spectra correspond to periodic waveforms.
Compare the spectrum of the real string in Fig. 2.5 with the idealized
spectrum in Fig. 2.6. Despite the complex appearance of the waveform, the
guitar sound is primarily harmonic. Over 20 partials are clearly visible at
roughly equal distances from each other, with frequencies at (approximately)

34.
2 The Science of Sound
amplitude
18
sample: 0
time:
0
196
10000
0.23
20000
0.45
30000
0.68
magnitude
384
589
787
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
frequency in Hz
Fig. 2.5. Waveform of a guitar pluck and its spectrum. The top ﬁgure shows the
ﬁrst 3/4 second (32,000 samples) of the pluck of the G string of an acoustic guitar.
The spectrum shows the fundamental at 196 Hz, and near integer harmonics at 384,
589, 787, . . . .
integer multiples of the fundamental, which in this case happens to be 196
Hz.
There are also some important diﬀerences between the real and the idealized spectra. Although the idealized spectrum is empty between the various
partials, the real spectrum has some low level energy at almost every frequency. There are two major sources of this: noise and artifacts. The noise
might be caused by pick noise, ﬁnger squeaks, or other aspects of the musical
performance. It might be ambient audio noise from the studio, or electronic
noise from the recording equipment. Indeed, the small peak below the ﬁrst
partial is suspiciously close to 60 Hz, the frequency of line current in the
United States.
Artifacts are best described by referring back to Fig. 2.3. Even though
these were pure sine waves generated by computer, and are essentially exact,
the spectrum still has a signiﬁcant nonzero magnitude at frequencies other
than those of the two sine waves. This is because the sine waves are of ﬁnite
duration, whereas an idealized spectrum (as in Fig. 2.6) assumes an inﬁnite
duration signal. This smearing of the frequencies in the signal is a direct
result of the periodicity assumption inherent in the use of Fourier techniques.
Artifacts and implementation details are discussed at length in Appendix C.

35.
2.2 What Is a Spectrum?
19
fundamental
(=first partial)
second partial
third partial
magnitude
fourth partial
...
f
2f
3f 4f 5f
frequency
6f
Fig. 2.6. Vibrations of an ideal string and its spectrum. Because the string is ﬁxed
at both ends, it can only sustain oscillations when a half period ﬁts exactly into its
length. Thus, if the fundamental occurs at frequency f , the second partial must be
at 2f , the third at 3f , etc., as shown in the spectrum, which plots frequency verses
magnitude.
Guitar Pluck: Experiment
Surely you didn’t think you could read a whole chapter called the “Science
of Sound” without having to experiment? You will need a guitar (preferably
acoustic) and a reasonably quiet room.
Play one of the open strings that is in the low end of your vocal range
(the A string works well for me) and let the sound die away. Hold your mouth
right up to the sound hole, and sing “ah” loudly, at the same pitch as the
string. Then listen. You will hear the string “singing” back at you quietly.
This phenomenon is called resonance or sympathetic vibration. The pushing
and pulling of the air molecules of the pressure wave set in motion by your
voice excites the string, just as repetitive pushes of a child on a playground
swing causes larger and larger oscillations. When you stop pushing, the child
continues to bob up and down. Similarly, the string continues to vibrate after
you have stopped singing.
Now sing the note an octave above (if you cannot do this by ear, play at
the twelfth fret, and use this pitch to sing into the open string). Again you will
hear the string answer, this time at the octave. Now try again, singing the ﬁfth
(which can be found at the seventh fret). This time the string responds, not
at the ﬁfth, but at the ﬁfth plus an octave. The string seems to have suddenly
developed a will of its own, refusing to sing the ﬁfth, and instead jumping up

36.
20
2 The Science of Sound
an octave. If you now sing at the octave plus ﬁfth, the string resonates back
at the octave plus ﬁfth. But no amount of cajoling can convince it to sing
that ﬁfth in the lower octave. Try it. What about other notes? Making sure
to damp all strings but the chosen one, sing a major second (two frets up).
Now, no matter how strongly you sing, the string refuses to answer at all. Try
other intervals. Can you get any thirds to sound?
To understand this cranky behavior, refer back to Fig. 2.6. The pitch of the
string occurs at the fundamental frequency, and it is happy to vibrate at this
frequency when you sing. Similarly, the octave is at exactly the second partial,
and again the string is willing to sound. When you sing a major second, its
frequency does not line up with any of the partials. Try pushing a playground
swing at a rate at which it does not want to go—you will work very hard for
very little result. Similarly, the string will not sustain oscillations far from its
natural modes of vibration.
The explanation for the behavior of the guitar when singing the ﬁfth is
more subtle. Resonance occurs when the driving force (your singing) occurs
at or near the frequencies of the natural modes of vibration of the string (the
partials shown in Fig. 2.6). Your voice, however, is not a pure sine wave (at
least, mine sure is not). Voices tend to be fairly rich in overtones, and the
second partial of your voice coincides with the third partial of the string. It is
this coincidence of frequencies that drives the string to resonate. By listening
to the string, we have discovered something about your voice.
This is similar to the way Helmholtz [B: 71] determined the spectral content of sounds without access to computers and Fourier transforms. He placed
tuning forks or bottle resonators (instead of strings) near the sound to be analyzed. Those that resonated corresponded to partials of the sound. In this
way, he was able to build a fairly accurate picture of the nature of sound and
of the hearing process.6
Sympathetic vibrations provide a way to hear the partials of a guitar
string,7 showing that they can vibrate in any of the modes suggested by
Fig. 2.6. But do they actually vibrate in these modes when played normally?
The next simple experiment demonstrates that strings tend to vibrate in many
of the modes simultaneously.
6
7
Although many of the details of Helmholtz’s theories have been superseded, his
book remains inspirational and an excellent introduction to the science of acoustics.
For those without a guitar who are feeling left out, it is possible to hear sympathetic vibrations on a piano, too. For instance, press the middle C key slowly so
that the hammer does not strike the string. While holding this key down (so that
the damper remains raised), strike the C an octave below, and then lift up your
ﬁnger so as to damp it out. Although the lower C string is now silent, middle
C is now vibrating softly–the second partial of the lower note has excited the
fundamental of the middle C. Observe that playing a low B will not excite such
resonances in the middle C string.

37.
2.2 What Is a Spectrum?
21
Grab your guitar and pluck an open string, say the A string. Then, quickly
while the note is still sounding, touch your ﬁnger lightly to the string directly
above the twelfth fret.8 You should hear the low A die away, leaving the
A an octave above still sounding. With a little practice you can make this
transition reliably. To understand this octave jump, refer again to Fig. 2.6.
When vibrating at the fundamental frequency, the string makes its largest
movement in the center. This point of maximum motion is called an antinode
for the vibrational mode. Touching the midpoint of the string (at the twelfth
fret) damps out this oscillation right away, because the ﬁnger is far more
massive than the string. On the other hand, the second partial has a ﬁxed
point (called a node) right in the middle. It does not need to move up and
down at the midpoint at all, but rather has antinodes at 1/4 and 3/4 of the
length of the string. Consequently, its vibrations are (more or less) unaﬀected
by the light touch of the ﬁnger, and it continues to sound even though the
fundamental has been silenced.
The fact that the second partial persists after touching the string shows
that the string must have been vibrating in (at least) the ﬁrst and second
modes. In fact, strings usually vibrate in many modes simultaneously, and
this is easy to verify by selectively damping out various partials. For instance,
by touching the string immediately above the seventh fret (1/3 of the length
of the string), both the ﬁrst and second partials are immediately silenced,
leaving the third partial (at a frequency of three times the fundamental, the E
an octave and a ﬁfth above the fundamental A) as the most prominent sound.
The ﬁfth fret is 1/4 of the length of the string. Touching here removes the
ﬁrst three partials and leaves the fourth, two octaves above the fundamental,
as the apparent pitch. To bring out the ﬁfth harmonic, touch at either the
1/5 (just below the fourth fret) or at the 2/5 (near the ninth fret) points.
This gives a note just a little ﬂat of a major third, two octaves above the
fundamental.
Table 2.1 shows the ﬁrst 16 partials of the A string of the guitar. The
frequency of each partial is listed, along with the nearest note of the standard
12-tone equal-tempered scale and its frequency. The ﬁrst several coincide very
closely, but the correspondence deteriorates for higher partials. The seventh
partial is noticeably ﬂat of the nearest scale tone, and above the ninth partial,
there is little resemblance. With a bit of practice, it is possible to bring out
the sound of many of the lower partials. Guitarists call this technique “playing
the harmonics” of the string, although the preferred method begins with the
ﬁnger resting lightly on the string and pulls it away as the string is plucked.
As suggested by the previous discussion, it is most common to play harmonics
at the twelfth, seventh, and ﬁfth frets, which correspond to the second, third,
and fourth partials, although others are feasible.
8
Hints: Just touch the string delicately. Do not press it down onto the fretboard.
Also, position the ﬁnger immediately over the fret bar, rather than over the space
between the eleventh and twelfth frets where you would normally ﬁnger a note.

38.
22
2 The Science of Sound
Table 2.1. The ﬁrst 16 partials of the A string of a guitar with fundamental at
110 Hz. Many of the partials lie near notes of the standard equal-tempered scale,
but the correspondence grows worse for higher partial numbers.
Partial
Number
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Frequency
of Partial
110
220
330
440
550
660
770
880
990
1100
1210
1320
1430
1540
1650
1760
Name of
Nearest Note
A
A
E
A
C
E
G
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
G
A
Frequency of
Nearest Note
110
220
330
440
554
659
784
880
988
1109
1245
1318
1397
1568
1661
1760
As any guitarist knows, the tone of the instrument depends greatly on
where the picking is done. Exciting the string in diﬀerent places emphasizes
diﬀerent sets of characteristic frequencies. Plucking the string in the middle
tends to bring out the fundamental and other odd-numbered harmonics (can
you tell why?) while plucking near the ends tends to emphasize higher harmonics. Similarly, a pickup placed in the middle of the string tends to “hear”
and amplify more of the fundamental (which has its antinode in the middle), and a pickup placed near the end of the string emphasizes the higher
harmonics and has a sharper, more trebly tone.
Thus, guitars both can and do vibrate in many modes simultaneously, and
these vibrations occur at frequencies dictated by the physical geometry of the
string. We have seen two diﬀerent methods of experimentally ﬁnding these
frequencies: excitation via an external source (singing into the guitar) and
selective damping (playing the harmonics). Of course, both of these methods
are somewhat primitive, but they do show that the spectrum (a plot of the
frequencies of the partials, and their magnitudes) is a real thing, which corresponds well with physical reality. With the ready availability of computers,
the Fourier transform is easy to use. It is more precise, but fundamentally
it tells nothing more than could be discovered using other nonmathematical
(and more intuitive) ways.

39.
2.2 What Is a Spectrum?
23
A Metal Bar
It is not just strings that vibrate with characteristic frequencies. Every physical object tends to resonate at particular frequencies. For objects other than
strings, however, these characteristic frequencies are often not harmonically
related.
One of the simplest examples is a uniform metal bar as used in a glockenspiel or a wind chime.9 When the bar is struck, it bends and vibrates, exciting
the air and making sound. Figure 2.7 shows the ﬁrst 3/4 second of the waveform of a bar and the corresponding spectrum. As usual, the waveform depicts
the envelope of the sound, indicating how the amplitude evolves over time.
The spectrum shows clearly what the sound is made of: four prominent partials and some high-frequency junk. The partials are at 526, 1413, 2689, and
4267 Hz. Considering the ﬁrst partial as the fundamental at f = 526 Hz, this
is f , 2.68f , 5.11f , and 8.11f , which is certainly not a harmonic relationship;
that is, the frequencies are not integer multiples of any audible fundamental. For bars of diﬀerent lengths, the value of f changes, but the relationship
between frequencies of the partials remains (roughly) the same.
The spectrum of the ideal string was explained physically as due to the
requirement that it be ﬁxed at both ends, which implied that the period of all
sustained vibrations had to ﬁt evenly into the length of the string. The metal
bar is free at both ends, and hence, there is no such constraint. Instead the
movement is characterized by bending modes that specify how the bar will
vibrate once it is set into motion. The ﬁrst three of these modes are depicted in
Fig. 2.8, which diﬀer signiﬁcantly from the mode shapes of the string depicted
in Fig. 2.6. Theorists have been able to write down and solve the equations
that describe this kind of motion.10 For an ideal metal bar, if the fundamental
occurs at frequency f , the second partial will be at 2.76f , the third at 5.4f ,
and the fourth at 8.93f . This is close to the measured spectrum of the bar of
Fig. 2.7. The discrepancies are likely caused by small nonuniformities in the
composition of the bar or to small deviations in the height or width of the bar.
The high-frequency junk is most likely caused by impact noise, the sound of
the stick hitting the bar, which is not included in the theoretical calculations.
As with the string, it is possible to discover these partials yourself. Find
a cylindrical wind chime, a length of pipe, or a metal extension hose from
a vacuum cleaner. Hold the bar (or pipe) at roughly 2/9 of its length, tap
it, and listen closely. How many partials can you hear? If you hold it in the
middle and tap, then the fundamental is attenuated and the pitch jumps up
to the second partial—well over an octave away (to see why, refer again to
Fig. 2.8). Now, keeping the sound of the second partial clearly in mind, hold
9
10
Even though wind chimes are often built from cylindrical tubes, the primary
modes of vibration are like those of a metal bar. Vibrations of the air column
inside the tube are not generally loud enough to hear.
See Fletcher and Rossing’s Physics of Musical Instruments for an amazingly detailed presentation.

40.
2 The Science of Sound
amplitude
24
sample: 0
time:
0
10000
0.23
magnitude
526
20000
0.45
30000
0.68
1413
2689
4267
0
2000
4000
6000
frequency in Hz
Fig. 2.7. Waveform of the strike of a metal bar and the corresponding spectrum.
The top ﬁgure shows the ﬁrst 3/4 second (32,000 samples) of the waveform in time.
The spectrum shows four prominent partials.
and strike the pipe again at the 2/9 point. You will hear the fundamental,
of course, but if you listen carefully, you can still hear the second partial. By
selectively muting the various partials, you can bring the sound of many of
the lower partials to the fore. By listening carefully, you can then continue to
hear them even when they are mixed in with all the others.
As with the string, diﬀerent characteristic frequencies can be emphasized
by striking the bar at diﬀerent locations. Typically, this will not change the locations of the partials, but it will change their relative amplitudes and, hence,
the tone quality of the instrument. Observe the technique of a conga drummer.
By tapping in diﬀerent places, the drummer changes the tone dramatically.
Also, by pressing a free hand against the drumhead, certain partials can be
selectively damped, again manipulating the timbre.
The guitar string and the metal bar are only two of a nearly inﬁnite number
of possible sound-making devices. The (approximately) harmonic vibrations
of the string are also characteristic of many other musical instruments. For
instance, when air oscillates in a tube, its motion is constrained in much the
same way that the string is constrained by its ﬁxed ends. At the closed end of
a tube, the ﬂow of air must be zero, whereas at an open end, the pressure must

41.
2.2 What Is a Spectrum?
Fig. 2.8. The ﬁrst three bending
modes of an ideal metal bar and its
spectrum. The size of the motion is
proportional to the amplitude of the
sound, and the rate of oscillation determines the frequency. As usual, the
spectrum shows the frequencies of
the partials on the horizontal axis
and their magnitude on the vertical
axis. Nodes are stationary points for
particular modes of vibration. The
ﬁgures are not to scale (the size of the
motion is exaggerated with respect to
the length and diameter of the bars).
Mode 1
nodes
Mode 2
Mode 3
magnitude
25
...
frequency frequency
of mode 1 of mode 2
frequency
of mode 3
drop to zero.11 Thus instruments such as the ﬂute, clarinet, trumpet, and so
on, all have spectra that are primarily harmonic. In contrast, most percussion
instruments such as drums, marimbas, kalimbas, cymbals, gongs, and so on,
have spectra that are inharmonic. Musical practice generally incorporates
both kinds of instruments.
Analytic vs. Holistic Listening: Tonal Fusion
Almost all musical sounds consist of a great many partials, whether they are
harmonically related or not. Using techniques such as selective damping and
the selective excitation of modes, it is possible (with a bit of practice) to
learn to “hear out” these partials, to directly perceive the spectrum of the
sound. This kind of listening is called analytic listening, in contrast to holistic
listening in which the partials fuse together into one perceptual entity. When
listening analytically, sounds fragment into their constituent elements. When
listening holistically, each sound is perceived as a single unit characterized by
a unique tone, color, or timbre.
Analytic listening is somewhat analogous to the ability of a trained musician to reliably discern any of several diﬀerent parts in a complex score where
the naive (and more holistic) listener perceives one grand sound mass.
11
For more information on the modes of air columns, refer to Benade’s Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics. See Brown ([B: 20] and [W: 3]) for a discussion of the
inharmonicities that may originate in nonidealized strings and air columns.

42.
26
2 The Science of Sound
When presented with a mass of sound, the ear must decide how many
notes, tones, or instruments are present. Consider the closing chord of a string
quartet. At one extreme is the fully analytic ear that “hears out” a large number of partials. Each partial can be attended to individually, and each has its
own attributes such as pitch and loudness. At the other extreme is the fully
holistic listener who hears the ﬁnale as one grand tone, with all four instruments fusing into a single rich and complex sonic texture. This is called the
root or fundamental bass in the works of Rameau [B: 145]. Typical listening lies somewhere between. The partials of each instrument fuse, but the
instruments remain individually perceptible, each with its own pitch, loudness, vibrato, and so on. What physical clues make this remarkable feat of
perception possible?
One way to investigate this question experimentally is to generate clusters
of partials and ask listeners “how many notes” they hear.12 Various features of
the presentation reliably encourage tonal fusion. For instance, if the partials:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
Begin at the same time (attack synchrony)
Have similar envelopes (amplitudes change similarly over time)
Are harmonically related
Have the same vibrato rate
then they are more likely to fuse into a single perceptual entity. Almost any
common feature of a subgroup of partials helps them to be perceived together.
Perhaps the viola attacks an instant early, the vibrato on the cello is a tad
faster, or an aggressive bowing technique sharpens the tone of the ﬁrst violin.
Any such quirks are clues that can help the ear bind the partials of each instrument together while distinguishing viola from violin. Familiarity with the
timbral quality of an instrument is also important when trying to segregate it
from the surrounding sound mass, and there may be instrumental “templates”
acquired with repeated listening.
The fusion and ﬁssioning of sounds is easy to hear using a set of wind
chimes with long sustain. I have a very beautiful set called the “Chimes of
Partch,”13 made of hollow metal tubes. When the clapper ﬁrst strikes a tube,
there is a “ding” that initiates the sound. After several strikes and a few
seconds, the individuality of the tube’s vibrations are lost. The whole set
begins to “hum” as a single complex tone. The vibrations have fused. When
a new ding occurs, it is initially heard as separate, but soon merges into the
hum.
At the risk of belaboring the obvious, it is worth mentioning that many of
the terms commonly used in musical discourse are essentially ambiguous. The
strike of a metal bar may be perceived as a single “note” by a holistic listener,
yet as a diverse collection of partials by an analytic listener. As the analytic
12
13
This is an oversimpliﬁcation of the testing procedures actually used by Bregman
[B: 18] and his colleagues.
See [B: 91].

43.
2.3 What Is Timbre?
27
listener assigns a separate pitch and loudness to each partial, the strike is heard
as a “chord.” Thus, the same sound stimulus can be legitimately described as
a note or as a chord.
The ability to control the tonal fusion of a sound can become crucial in
composition or performance with electronic sounds of unfamiliar timbral qualities. For example, it is important for the composer to be aware of “how many”
notes are sounding. What may appear to be a single note (in an electronic
music score or on the keyboard of a synthesizer) may well ﬁssion into multiple
tones for a typical listener. By inﬂuencing the coincidence of attack, envelope,
vibrato, harmonicity, and so on, the composer can help to ensure that what is
heard is the same as what was intended. By carefully emphasizing parameters
of the sound, the composer or musician can help to encourage the listener into
one or the other perceptual modes.
The spectrum corresponds well to the physical behavior of the vibrations
of strings, air columns, and bars that make up musical instruments. It also
corresponds well to the analytic listening of humans as they perceive these
sound events. However, people generally listen holistically, and a whole vocabulary has grown up to describe the tone color, sound quality, or timbre of
a tone.
2.3 What Is Timbre?
If a tree falls in the forest, is there any timbre? According to the American
National Standards Institute [B: 6], the answer must be “no,” whether or not
anyone is there to hear. They deﬁne:
Timbre is that attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which a
listener can judge two sounds similarly presented and having the same
loudness and pitch as dissimilar.
This deﬁnition is confusing, in part because it tells what timbre is not (i.e.,
loudness and pitch) rather than what it is. Moreover, if a sound has no pitch
(like the crack of a falling tree or the scrape of shoes against dry leaves), then
it cannot be “similarly presented and have the same pitch,” and hence it has
no timbre at all. Pratt and Doak [B: 143] suggest:
Timbre is that attribute of auditory sensation whereby a listener can
judge that two sounds are dissimilar using any criterion other than
pitch, loudness and duration.
And now the tree does have timbre as it falls, although the deﬁnition still
does not specify what timbre is.
Unfortunately, many descriptions of timbral perception oversimplify. For
instance, a well known music dictionary [B: 75] says in its deﬁnition of timbre
that:

44.
28
2 The Science of Sound
On analysis, the diﬀerence between tone-colors of instruments are
found to correspond with diﬀerences in the harmonics represented
in the sound (see HARMONIC SERIES).
This is simplifying almost to the point of misrepresentation. Any sound (such
as a metal bar) that does not have harmonics (partials lying at integer multiples of the fundamental) would have no timbre. Replacing “harmonic” with
“partial” or “overtone” suggests a deﬁnition that equates timbre with spectrum, as in this statement by the Columbia Encyclopedia:
[Sound] Quality is determined by the overtones, the distinctive timbre of any instrument being the result of the number and relative
prominence of the overtones it produces.
Although much of the notion of the timbre of a sound can be attributed to
the number, amplitudes, and spacing of the spectral lines in the spectrum of
a sound, this cannot be the whole story because it suggests that the envelope
and attack transients do not contribute to timbre. Perhaps the most dramatic
demonstration of this is to play a sound backward. The spectrum of a sound
is the same whether it is played forward or backward,14 and yet the sound
is very diﬀerent. In the CD Auditory Demonstrations [D: 21], a Bach chorale
is played forward on the piano, backward on the piano, and then the tape is
reversed. In the backward and reversed case, the music moves forward, but
each note of the piano is reversed. The piano takes on many of the timbral
characteristics of a reed organ, demonstrating the importance of the time
envelope in determining timbre.
2.3.1 Multidimensional Scaling
It is not possible to construct a single continuum in which all timbres can be
simply ordered as is done for loudness or for pitch.15 Timbre is thus a “multidimensional” attribute of sound, although exactly how many “dimensions”
are required is a point of signiﬁcant debate. Some proposed subjective rating
scales for timbre include:
dull ←→ sharp
cold ←→ warm
soft ←→ hard
pure ←→ rich
compact ←→ scattered
full ←→ empty
static ←→ dynamic
colorful ←→ colorless
14
15
As usual, we ignore the phase spectrum.
The existence of auditory illusions such as Shephard’s ever rising scale shows that
the timbre can interact with pitch to destroy this simple ordering. See [B: 41].